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Banned

Last year, Nintendo's retreat from the annual press conference popularity contest seemed like an admission of defeat. This year, it looked like tactical smarts and forward thinking. Nintendo has come bang up to date.

So Nintendo arrived in Los Angeles with a spring in its step. And then it did something you never expect Nintendo to do - get mean. Its E3 Digital Event was whimsical, yes, but also slickly produced, persuasive, even illuminating, and it took a firm step away from the gawky, homespun and humble tone of the Nintendo Directs. It began by characterising the old-style E3 press conference as a stop-motion farce and took a pot-shot at the cynical hacks and entitled fanboy bloggers Nintendo has spent decades being bullied by. "C'mon Reggie, give us Mother 3!" whined one before the Nintendo of America president set him on fire. It was silly, but the message was serious and clear: that was the old way of doing things, and now Nintendo would set its own agenda, thank you very much. You want a new Metroid? "Not my problem."

The best part of all, though? It didn't stop with the game announcements. After the Digital Event, Nintendo's E3 continued online with its Treehouse live streams and best-in-class YouTube presence. There was a live-streamed Smash Bros eSports tournament, something you would sooner expect of a company like Valve or Blizzard. There were developer presentations with reams of live gameplay that were considerably more lengthy and detailed than the "behind-closed-doors" demos we journos are accustomed to at E3. I strongly recommend checking them out. No coyness, a minimum of hype, just raw information and enthusiasm transmitted direct from the developers to the players, without the publicists, the marketers - or even us journalists - getting in the way. Was this really E3?

Will all this "save" Wii U from its ignominious sales? Probably not. Does it matter? Not in the long term. What matters is that it saves Nintendo. In my decade as a games journalist, and during many preceding years as an amateur industry-watcher, I've had a consistent watchword: never write off Nintendo. The Kyoto company is tenacious, inventive, wealthy enough to weather a long storm, and it just loves making games. After E3 2014, I'm not going to be changing my stance.

I absolutely agree. Nintendo dominated E3 this year- where others were flashbangs- people talked about them for the duration of the conference, and that was it- Nintendo completely dominated E3 for a period of three days, by completely redefining what E3 is. Absolutely brilliant.

Banned

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

Banned

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

Member

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

Banned

They did good by me, starting 6 weeks before with the mega 64 video leading into the really well produced, pre-recorded digital event. I got to see the new Zelda and it looked amazing and a promise that Star Fox U was not only being made, but it should be out soon.

The treehouse live was something else too. Giving us, the consumers, a direct look at the e3 demos, complete with commentary by the developers.

Really good showing, hope next year is just as good.

Also, i hate all this winning and losing stuff. Geoff saying that during the preshow was really cring worthy. I feel like the big 3 all had a good show.

Banned

I think they absolutely did... with nothing but pure exclusives. Their digital event also made the old press conference format seem utterly dull and outdated. Especially when it comes to sleep-inducing filler segments like what Sony had in their conference. With Nintendo it was all about fun and wall-to-wall coverage of their games with the Treehouse. It's how E3 should be done, in my opinion.

None of these are actually things we need to be concerned about- as we can well see, Nintendo plans to support the Wii U through to at least 2016, that isn't stopping or going anywhere.
As for the online community, the Wii U community is comprised exclusively of Nintendo fans, they're an active and engaged bunch (hence, for instance, the console's high attach rate).

Well, yes, to be extremely clear, I do think the Wii U is consigned to be a secondary console for the rest of its life. I have a PS4 for the major third party games that I may want. The Nintendo console, I bought for Nintendo games. And it seems like it will do very well on that front regardless of its sales performance.

card-carrying scientician

The best part of all, though? It didn't stop with the game announcements. After the Digital Event, Nintendo's E3 continued online with its Treehouse live streams and best-in-class YouTube presence. There was a live-streamed Smash Bros eSports tournament, something you would sooner expect of a company like Valve or Blizzard. There were developer presentations with reams of live gameplay that were considerably more lengthy and detailed than the "behind-closed-doors" demos we journos are accustomed to at E3. I strongly recommend checking them out. No coyness, a minimum of hype, just raw information and enthusiasm transmitted direct from the developers to the players, without the publicists, the marketers - or even us journalists - getting in the way. Was this really E3?

This is definitely the part I most agree with. And not in a "Nintendo is awesome, of course that's the case" way (good lord, anyone remember a few years ago...what conference had the Wii Party reveal?) They seem to have just made some incredibly good decisions.

The lighthearted, self-deprecating tone of the presentation was another great move.

Banned

I made my peace with the Wii U not being a success a long time ago. What I needed to see was Nintendo being committed to expanding their stable of franchises, offering new experiences and ensuring that the Wii U that I've already bought will have compelling content in the years to come. In that sense, I consider it a complete success.

Banned

I think they absolutely did... with nothing but pure exclusives. Their digital event also made the old press conference format seem utterly dull and outdated. Especially when it comes to sleep-inducing filler segments like what Sony had in their conference. With Nintendo it was all about fun and wall-to-wall coverage of their games with the Treehouse. It's how E3 should be done, in my opinion.

Member

At the end of the day, it was Nintendo that offered us "games, games, games" with extensive *gameplay* shown and variety, while Microsoft prodded along burning every hohum and undercooked card in the book and Sony acting like an unfocused, slightly underprepared market leader.

Props to everyone at Nintendo. It may not change the tide, but they damn well tried.

Junior Member

They did a great job, and I think the lack of new announcements for Xbone/PS4 also helped them as there really isn't a hell of a lot to talk about after E3 for those consoles other than stuff we already knew about beforehand.

Banned

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

Member

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

As someone who deeply loves Nintendo... It very MUCH matters to me if this E3 changed people's minds and that lead to more sales. More sales = more games. Games don't appear in a vacuum, and poor sales can lead to an early end to a console (and the games being developed for it).

Member

This happens year after year. Everyone complains about Nintendo and how they don't do things right or never change, then Nintendo comes out and announces a small clip of a new Zelda, or some live event and suddenly everyone goes crazy and says Nintendo "Won" or Nintendo's back!

Seriously, every time Nintendo see's this praise it's only further convincing them to never get serious and do shit that makes sense.

Member

They obviously lacked content, because they have to support the console alone, but their show including treehouse was really nice. But well, since mostly games are selling a console and not a a good entertainment show it probably won't help the WiiU that much. They should still keep this going even with their next console and hopefully with 3rd partys then.

listen to the mad man

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

This is a very short-sighted way of looking at things. Nintendo operates at the scale they operate at because they make money and they have money to spend. One of the ways that Nintendo makes a lot of money is through platform licensing fees (IE third party games). The Wii generate brought literally billions of dollars in licensing revenue to Nintendo, as did the DS. A Nintendo that is operating without those billions of dollars is going to have to make some hard choices. It also means that their own software becomes riskier. If you're a publisher and you put out a game that you need to sell 2 million units of, selling 500k is a huge miss. If you're a platform holder where that 500k drives hardware sales and those buyers buy some more of your games and some third party games that give you licensing fees, the risk is massively mitigated. Selling only to people who already have your hardware and only selling the games you yourself release is a big big big blow to your ability to generate cash. And that cash plays through not only in development, but also in longer term R&D for example for future console hardware.

But this is not an immediate process, it's a long and slow one. The way of saying "well, I like the games they're working on, so obviously there are no negative consequences to losing and spending buckets of money" just means you'll be surprised when or if sudden changes happen in the future while everyone else saw them coming.

This isn't me saying Nintendo is in immediate danger of catastrophic collapse, but rather that your position appears to be that if you like the games, the actual performance of the games and the hardware doesn't matter at all. And it does.

Member

I'm a huge Nintendo fan but their E3 performance last year was pretty painful. This time round? They smashed it. Great ideas for their established IPs, exciting new IPs, and a real commitment to supporting the Wii U. Also the Treehouse stream was inspired and the Smash tournament was great fun.

Member

For me, I loved the style of the presentation and the pacing was spot on. I watched the treehouse too and again they nailed the format but honestly apart from a Star Fox tease there was nothing there that I wanted to play.

The toad, yoshi stuff didn't interest me, Zelda does nothing for me and neither did X. That's not a criticism of Nintendo as everyone's taste is different. I do hope they stick to this format next year as it refreshing.

Which ones, third party ones? Because they were a lost cause anyway. I guess you were somehow still holding on to the expectation that third parties would begin Wii U development halfway into this development generation?

As someone who deeply loves Nintendo... It very MUCH matters to me if this E3 changed people's minds and that lead to more sales. More sales = more games. Games don't appear in a vacuum, and poor sales can lead to an early end to a console (and the games being developed for it).

Well, again, I would actually agree, except Wii U actually has games lined through to 2016, so I'm feeling relatively okay about it so far. That, plus it has increased positive buzz anyway, and anecdotally, it is translating to sales (it seems to be sold out at the Best Buy and Gamestop near my place).

Member

Pretty easily they had the best E3 out of all the presenters. MS and Sony had good showings too, but Nintendo again gave one of the best E3 memories in history. Lots of surprises, lots of information, lots of hype.

Banned

Does it matter if it translates to Wii U sales? Why would you as a gamer care how well or badly the Wii U is selling if it continues to get great games regardless (which, as this E3 amply demonstrates. it is anyway)?

Really tired of this attitude. It's basically a round-about way to dismiss conversation involving the Wii U's viability to get back into the race with PS4/Xbone. You should absolutely care about how the Wii U is selling if you want people to buy it thus getting more third party publishers to take interest and justify putting titles on it outside of Nintendo's output. Of course they are going to support it with software. They kinda have to do. As for them winning E3? They did good for their current customers. Didn't really see what they did to convince people sitting on the fence and by that I mean people outside of GAF (because I know this is going to prompt hardcore gamers on GAF who bought one this weekend to respond).

Member

Sales talk aside, Nintendo showed some of the best, most creative games of E3 and unlike every other conference featured almost entirely gameplay footage.

The Smash tournament was pretty much unmatched when it comes to Internet presence. At its peak it had more than 300000 viewers. It also produced some of the best genuine reactions, which was nice considering the fake screams I kept on hearing elsewhere. Especially at the EA event.

And to top it off, Treehouse. 3 days of solid gameplay and interesting people presenting it. The best thing about E3 this year.

Yes, Nintendo won for me.

Oh, and to the people who say Nintendo just showed off a clip of Zelda and didn't announce new IPs or anything like that, how about you actually fucking pay attention.

Member

Amazing E3 for Nintendo. The Digital Event alone was amazing with a bunch of games for 2014 and 2015, but on top of that they had the Treehouse streaming as well as the Smash tournament. After the first press conference day I totally forgot about all the other companies. Nintendo kept me intrigued the whole time and there was always something to watch and look forward to.

Member

This happens year after year. Everyone complains about Nintendo and how they don't do things right or never change, then Nintendo comes out and announces a small clip of a new Zelda, or some live event and suddenly everyone goes crazy and says Nintendo "Won" or Nintendo's back!

Seriously, every time Nintendo see's this praise it's only further convincing them to never get serious and do shit that makes sense.